I grew up around great cooks. Both my parents could cook, my grandmother, my grandfather, my aunts... everyone. My family was known for its cooks... really good ones. I guess that's why I never thought about learning how. Who needed another cook when there were so many around? Until I moved out on my own...
That's when I began missing all that good food. I was working a lot and didn't always have the time to cook myself a decent meal, so I ate whatever was easiest. I realized quickly being around such good cooks, I had developed very sophisticated taste buds. Pop tarts and instant meals just wasn't cutting it for me. But I had a problem... I couldn't cook.
I occasionally treated myself to a "decent" meal at good restaurants, but doing that too often left me broke. I think it took marriage and two toddlers for me to finally decide to take learning how to cook a bit more seriously.
I had decided to start off slow. I watched cooking shows for quite awhile without cooking anything. My husband joked about the amount of cooking shows I watch versus what I actually cooked. But I had decided I wasn't cooking anything unless I was confident it would turn out well.
Looking back, that may have been a mistake, but I did finally build up the courage to make something I had seen made several times. I decided my first meal would have to be an easy one, so I chose one I could whip up in 30 minutes with as few ingredients as possible... nothing overwhelming. It turned out to be a great success because it tasted good and was easy to make.
From then on the criteria for any recipe I would try would be it taste good and is easy to make. When I go online and research recipes I always use these two phrases. I check the rating and read most of the reviews before I commit to making a new recipe. Using this method I have yet to make a bad meal for my family.
Now that I got the hang of cooking simple meals, I've started making up recipes of my own. Though my cooking transformation happened later than I had liked, I am much more grateful for what I have learned and I won't be be taking cooking for granted again.
Learning from their mom's experience (or lack there of), my kids are much more comfortable in the kitchen than I was at their age. They are more motivated in making their own meals, because like me, they enjoy eating good food.
Cooking has now become my passion. I love finding new recipes, trying them out, tweaking them, making them my own. I think the added joy of cooking for me is the time I get to spend enjoying what I make with the people I care about. That's what cooking food is all about anyway.
Years later, I'm proud of my cooking. I've created many great meals...
... and so can anyone.
With all that's available for free, there's no need to take a cooking class. Like me, you can teach yourself through cooking shows, culinary web sites, and free online cooking classes (which comes in handy when you need to press the pause button).
I've listed useful sites for any novice cooks looking to improve their cooking skills:
And my all time favorite: Food Network
If you'd like more information on how to create a meal plan (which helps when you are on a budget), you can read about that on my blog, Thanking God For The Dust Bunnies.
I hope this blog has inspired many a future cooks! In the words of a well-known, yet late blooming cook herself, Julia Child, "Bon Appétit!"
Good article. I appreciate your honesty. I like the allrecipes website, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks... I've learned that transparency is the best encourager!
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